


that epic gamer moment when you fall for your online best friend and english tutor

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M, alternate universe - youtuber, im gay and soft so if you want lots of angst this isnt the place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21603259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Dave Strider is YouTuber with a decent following. His channel is named TurntechGodhead, and he posts whatever the fuck he wants. He also has online beef with another channel called CarcinoGeneticist, and its good for the views. Dave is also a highschool student and hes being tutored by this cute kid named Karkat and oh shit he might be gay.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Comments: 3
Kudos: 91





	that epic gamer moment when you fall for your online best friend and english tutor

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fanfic that im posting be nice please im babey also im writing this all in one night so please correct any mistakes

"Fuck" was the only word Dave could say when he saw his test score. C-. It was technically a passing grade, but Ms. Paint has told him that if his grades hadn't improved, he would need to be tutored. And sure enough, she calls him up after class. 

"Dave, I know you have been trying to improve your grades, but you havn't shown any improvement. So for this reason, I'm going to have one of my other students tutor you. Do you know Karkat?" She asked sweetly.

"Yeah, I think so." He knew him. Shouty, short, he had seen him with his sister and her girlfriend at lunch, but never talked to him.

"Well, he will be the one tutoring you. He is doing very well in English, so he should help you bring up your grades easily!" Ms. Paint said, smiling at Dave. Dave sighed and thoght about it. His mom wouldn't care he was late, Bro was long gone, so the only person he would have to talk about this to was Rose. She was going to be insufferable about this, teasing him. Dave would keep up the uncaring and cool face though, and he would just crack some jokes over it. Ms. Paint cleared her throat, snapping him out of his head.

"Uh, sure I guess. Where will I be meeting him?" Dave asked awkwardly, fidgeting slightly. He was supposed to meet John for pizza after school, and didn't want him to worry. 

"That is for you two to discuss, I just trust I will be seeing improvement soon though. Have a nice day, hon." The older woman ushered Dave out of the classroom. 

There was a slight problem. Dave didn't know how to contact Karkat. He pulled out his phone to message Rose, because she probably knew his number. He didn't use pesterchum because it's 2019, who the fuck even uses that anymore? What was he, 13? He texted her, like any normal person would.

Dave: yo sis whats up  
Dave: would you happen to have karkats number because i really need to text him  
Rose: Oh my, I didn't know you were intrested in him. Awfully bold, Strider, but I'm sure Karkat likes that in a man. ;)  
Dave: what the fuck rose no  
Dave: i am not into dudes, much less shouty  
Dave: i am the straightest guy you will ever meet, even more than john  
Dave: which is hard to do because that kid is insistent on his sexuality hes all  
Dave: "im totally not into dudes, i just like pranking them and looking at their bodies drenched in water after i dump a bucket on them"  
Dave: totally heterosexual behavior there  
Rose: Well, if you don't need Karkats number so you can ask him out, why? You guys never talk as far as I'm aware.  
Dave: oh yeah he has to tutor me lol  
Rose: I will save my comments for later as Kanaya needs me right now.  
Rose: I'll ask Kanaya and text you it later.  
Dave: thanks rose  
Rose: No problem, brother dearest.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Dave: whats up shouty  
Karkat: WHO THE FUCK IS THIS  
Dave: its dave, you gotta tutor me in english  
Dave: whats with the yelling no need to be agressive  
Karkat: OH YEAH, MS PAINT TOLD ME ABOUT THAT EARLIER. ALSO FUCK YOU, I TYPE HOWEVER I WANT  
Dave: ok sure whatever  
Dave: where should we meet up for this thing  
Karkat: THE LIBRARY, WHERE THE FUCK ELSE WOULD WE MEET?  
Dave: fair point  
Dave: 3:30 in the library cool with you?  
Karkat: SURE  
Dave: epic

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

"AND ALSO, TITANIC IS NOT A 'DUMB IDIOT MOVIE FOR BABIES' AS YOU WOULD PUT IT, ITS A CLASSIC WORK OF ART. YOU COULDN'T TELL TRUE ART IF IT WAS THROWN AT YOU, TURNTECH."

"Are you kidding me? Titanic is boring and sappy. Spy Kids 3, now that's a good movie."

Dave was currently arguing with Carcino on Discord about good and bad movies for a video. The fans ate up their interactions, and it was fun banter, so why not make content of it? He tuned back into Carcino's rant, something about how he was an idiot.

"Bruh, chill out. You care too much about the plot of these dumb rom-coms, you gotta relax. Why not watch The Room?"

"OH MY FUCKING GOD, ARE YOU AN IDIOT? OR MAYBE YOU'RE JUST FUCKING WITH ME AT THIS POINT?"

Dave simply laughed. He enjoyed these kind of videos.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

"Wow, you're late," Dave leaned back in the cheap plastic chair as he grinned at Karkat, who was sitting down across the table. He glared at Dave. "I'm three minutes late, fuckwit," he replies grumpily. "Do you expect to get into a decent college with such poor English grades?" He flipped through the papers that were marked 'D's and the occasional 'C'. Dave thought his voice was familiar, but decided to ignore it. He had probably just heard him around the school.

"Geez, relax bro. If I don't get into college, I'll just become a YouTuber. Karkat just looked at him incredulously.

"YouTuber? That's not a stable job. You should want to go to college.

Of course Karkat would say something like that. Dave just grumbled

"You just say that because you're smart." He knew it was true. Ms. Paint has chosen someone in the same year as him to be his tutor. Karkat obviously knew what he was doing.

"I'm here to help. Stop complaining," 

Dave couldn't think of a good response so he just sighed and picked up a pencil before looking at Karkat. Dave already didn't like him very much, and he had just met him. Karkat continued to shuffle through the papers before stacking them beside him, then he picked up a textbook and stack of binder paper.

Finally, he pulled out his phone and put it on silent, motioning for Dave to do the same. Once Dave had put his phone away, Karkat smiled grimly and said "Let's get down to business, shall we?" with fake sweetness in his voice. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

"JEEBUS CRUST, WILL YOU JUST KILL HIM ALREADY? STOP WITH THE FANCY TRICKS AND GET ON WITH IT!" Carcino yelled over Discord, in reference to the game he and Dave, or "Turntech" were currently streaming. The didn't do livestreams often, but it was a Friday night so they decided it would be fun. Or as much fun as you could have when your ears were being assaulted by your teammate screeching. 

"Its more fun to do the fancy shots. Its not like I'm making out team loose or anything." As Turntech said this, he tried to do a fancy twirl and got shot.

"Don't say anything"

This resulted in Carcino laughing wildly and banging a fist on his desk. The chat was making jokes about the rivalry. They played it all up for views, when the camera was off, they were nicer. Friendly, even. Lots of stuff was played up. Turntech upped his southern drawl, even when not recording. He was sure Carcino didn't yell all the time, even though he always did when they talked.

"OH MY GOG TURNTECH, STOP DAYDREAMING AND GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!" Carcino yelled, and Turntech chuckled, before returning to his keyboard.

\-----------------------------------------------------------

"I think I might like dudes" Turntech said over dicord, late one night. They werent recording, just having a feelings jam.

"Really?" Woah. that was a softness he hadn't heard in Carcino's voice before. It was weirdly familiar.

"Yeah."

"How did you find out?" This was weird, Carcino usually yelled. Turntech just chalked it up to it being late and Carcino being tired.

"I'm being tutored for English, and while I cant deny the guy is kind of an asshole, he is super cute. I like girls too though, so I might be bi." 

"Oh. Well good luck with him." After an awkward pause, Carcino said

"...well I'm going to bed. Night dumbass."

Turntech sat in the call for a few minutes after Carcino left, before doing the same and heading to bed.

\--------------------------------------------------------

Karkat wasn't actually that bad of a kid to hang out with. 

Dave realized this after their second month of tutoring. Karkat was just loud and shouty and they had happened to start off on a sour note. He was funny and Dave enjoyed their banter and conversations.

It didn't hurt that he was also super cute. Like, unfairly cute.

Dave feels like he had improved a lot from their tutoring sessions. He was starting to get mostly C's and even a few B's. A sort of friendship had blossomed between the two. Dave told Karkat about his music and interest in bones. Dave learned that Karkat lived with his older brother who was in his words a "Preachy Prick." He had learned Karkat likes sappy romcoms and sad movies. He also learned that Karkat had a YouTube channel, but thought it wasn't stable so wanted to succeed in school anyways.

Hold on a second.

Karkat had a YouTube channel.

Suddenly memories of a late night discord chat came flooding back to him, and he was hit with a sudden realization. 

Karkat was Carcino.

Dave cradled his head in his hands, taking in this realization. That's why Carcino's soft voice had sounded so familiar. It was not unlike the voice Karkat used in the library.

Does Karkat even like him that much? Was he just being polite with the small talk? He knew he and Carcino were friends, but him and Karkat didn't exactly hang out outside of tutoring, aside from occasionally when they had found themselves hanging out with Rose and Kanaya and the two met up.

Dave didn't have may close friends besides Carc... er Karkat. John was his closest friend outside of his sister, and he didn't even go to the same school as Dave. He didn't want to make things weird by talking about it. So he tried to distance himself from both Karkat and Carcino

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Carcino had repeatedly messaged him on discord. First angry, then confused, then sad. Dave hadn't talked to him in a week and he hadn't shown up for tutoring either. Rose noticed he didn't want to go anywhere and came home quickly from school. The fans noticed, posting on twitter about how the two hadn't interacted and Turntech wasn't posting at all. He took a different way than he had taken when he was being tutored, so Karkat couldn't intercept him. Dave's grades were dipping again. 

One day, Karkat intercepted him before he left school. 

"Why haven't you been showing up to tutoring?" Dave stared blankly through his shades. 

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't play dumb you prick." Then, softer "I miss you."

"I don't want to make things weird between us."

"The fuck do you mean? Things were fine before you ghosted me."

"Sure thing, Carcino."

Dave didn't mean to say it out loud, but he did. Karkat looked confused, then he said nervously

"...Turntech?"

Dave ran the other way. He wasn't crying.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

"Dave, I need to- fuck, slow down!" 

Dave turned at the voice. He was not expecting to be followed. He had lost him and was taking the long way home. Karkat had purposely searched for him.

"Dave,"

Dave shifted uncomfortably as he discreetly tried to wipe his eyes. Karkat didn't miss the movement. He went to hug Dave, before stopping uncomfortably.

"Its okay. I don't mind, us knowing each other online, why were you so upset?" Karkat mumbled.

Dave began to cry again and this time Karkat hugged him.

"Its about what I said on discord that one night..." he sniffles. Karkat is confused, before catching on

"You think I'm cute?" Dave tried to turn away again, but Karkat stopped him and said

"Thats fine dude... I actually think the same thing."

Dave looked up at Karkat, shades blocking his eyes but cheeks stained with tears. He realized how close their faces were.

The two boys stared at each other, their faces barely a few inches apart. They were both blushing.

Then Karkat leaned up and their lips touched. 

There were no fireworks or sparks like they talked about in the movies. Instead, it was a soft kiss, one that feels warm like cocoa and honey. It lasted no longer than a couple of seconds.

Karkat pulled away, face flushed and embarrassed; he mumbled. "Sorry, that was uncalled for-"

"No, I.. I liked it," Dave said quietly, before continuing 

"You can do that again if you want"

And so Karkat did.


End file.
